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SATURDAY TV: Brie Larson hosts ‘SNL’

Mike Hughes
Published 2:14 a.m. PT May 7, 2016

In this 2003 file photo, a Japanese shopper sits on a sofa and watches a movie on a large screen TV at a home theater promotion corner at Ishimaru Denki electrical appliance store in Tokyo’s Akihabara district.(Photo11: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

TONIGHT’S MUST-SEE: “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. Brie Larson had done lots of work (comedy and drama) that went unnoticed. She did situation comedies and was a wild teen on Showtime’s “United States of Tara”; she did independent movies, including “Greenberg” and “Short Term 12.”

Then another indie, “Room,” changed her life. She won every best-actress award, including an Oscar. At 26, she hosts “SNL,” which returns from two weeks of reruns; Alicia Keys is the music guest.

TONIGHT’S MIGHT-SEE: “Houdini & Doyle,” 8 p.m., Fox. Let’s give this an A for its concept and a C-minus — at best — for everything else. In real life, Harry Houdini (the magician) and Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes novels) were mismatched friends. Doyle clung to a belief in ghosts and spiritualism, notions that Houdini worked to debunk.

So this imagines that they spent a lot of time together in 1901 London, solving cases alongside Scotland Yard’s first female constable. The setting provides some great visuals and the era creates obstacles that help the story. Still, this plot (rerun from Monday) is so-so, at best.

And there’s a bonus, on Mother’s Day eve: “The Real MVP” (8 p.m., Lifetime, rerunning at midnight) tells of Wanda Durant, a single mother at 21, keeping her two sons out of trouble; Kevin Durant would become a basketball superstar. Cassandra Freeman stars, in a movie produced by Queen Latifah.

Other choices include:

Kentucky Derby, 4 p.m. ET., NBC. After the two minutes of excitement, you can catch a movie about a previous winner. “Secretariat” (2010) isn’t a great movie — that’s “Seabiscuit” — but it’s a fairly good one, with Diane Lane excellent as the horse’s no-nonsense owner.

“Thor: The Dark World” (2013), 7:30 p.m., FX. Marvel continues to take over our TV time. This movie is followed at 10 p.m. by “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011). HBO counters at 8 with “Fantastic Four” (2015). And the Disney XD channel has Marvel animation, from 8 p.m. to midnight.

“Scorpion,” 8 p.m., CBS. Speaking of superheroes, these high-IQ characters wear heroic costumes in this rerun. They’re undercover on a movie set in Kazakhstan, trying to disable a nuclear missile.

“Beauty & the Beast – When Kate Met Chapo,” 8 p.m. ET, Fox News. Geraldo Rivera (no, he’s not the beauty or the beast) reports the odd story of the friendship between actress Kate del Castillo and druglord Joaquin (“El Chapo”) Guzman. Subjects include their secret meeting with Sean Penn, Guzman’s extradition status and his fascination with Donald Trump.

“Criminal Minds,” 9 p.m., CBS. In a rerun, a suspect may be obsessed with medical experiments.

“Outlander,” 9 p.m., Starz, rerunning at 9:55 and 10:50. Jamie and Claire re-unite, but a past event endangers their relationship.

“Beverly Hills Cop” (1984), 9-11:15 p.m., Sundance. This should be the prototype for any fish-out-of-water film. Clever moments alternate with whiz-bang action, all perfectly handled by Eddie Murphy.